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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Upstate New York
Posts: 3,101
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Sedaka's back on tour, and still on song
Nov 11 2005
By Philip Key, Daily Post
NEIL Sedaka is the nice man of pop, a songwriter and performer whose life seems to have been untouched by scandal, married to the same woman for 43 years and now at 66, a proud grandfather.
But don't let that niceness fool you. Sedaka is a songwriting genius, a man whose melodies have provided some of the greatest songs of the last 50 years, not only for him but for a host of other artists.
His performing career may have taken a few bumps - the Beatles' American invasion in the 1960s put a virtual stop to his solo work for a while - but Sedaka is the consummate professional, a showbusiness icon who can still pack them in at Las Vegas.
It is no surprise that his next album, is to be titled The Show Goes On.
It is around five years since he last toured the UK but he will be back for a ten day visit next year including a date at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall on April 10.
We talk at his New York home (he has another in Los Angeles) where he lives with his wife Leba, staff and a parrot named Echo.
Last year, he made the generation leap in the US by appearing as a guest panellist on their version of Pop Idol, American Idol.
"That show was watched by 25 million and the five finalists all did Neil Sedaka songs," he explains. "One of the songs was Solitaire performed by a young chap and that sold 450,000 singles last year in the US and became the best-selling single."
In Britain, he had equal success with the revival of his song Amarillo performed by Tony Christie.
"That was written 35 years ago and I will tell you how it came about. His manager came to New York City to my music publishing firm and said he had a new singer named Tony Christie.
"I played him Is This the Way to Amarillo and he said he thought it would work very well. We had a hit then but not as big as this year. I thought it was a very exciting thing for both Tony Christie and myself. I saw the video with Peter Kay and thought it was very amusing, very nice."
Next month Christie releases the song again in a swing version in a stab at the Christmas market. "Oh yes, he sent that to me. It's with a big band and very entertaining."
At the last count, Sedaka reckons to have written more than 1,000 songs in his 53-year career. Brooklyn-born, he had a classical training and was chosen as New York's outstanding pianist by Arthur Rubenstein who recommended him to the Juillard School of Music.
But while he loved the classics, he found immediate success as a writer of pop songs with his old school chum, Howard Greenfield. "I worked in the Brill Building in New York with other writers like Carole King, Neil Diamond and Paul Simon."
Carole King was also an old schoolmate and the two were boy and girlfriend for a while. His hit Oh! Carol was dedicated to her although her response Oh! Neil sank without trace.
Initially a writer of hits for other people - Stupid Cupid by Connie Francis was an early success - he soon became a solo artist in his own right.
He admits that the arrival of the Beatles on the American scene affected his career. "They did put the solo performers out of work for a while." But he holds no grudge.
"When I see Paul we hug and kiss and Paul said that listening to my old recordings was an inspiration to him which is always nice to hear. I don't think anyone will equal the quality and success of Lennon and McCartney."
He also dedicated his song The Immigrant to John Lennon.
He's "very fond" of Britain. "They welcomed me when no one else wanted me," he says.. This was in the early 1970s when Sedaka and his family relocated to Britain. "We were there for three and half years. I lived in a 12-room flat behind the Dorchester Hotel, and I hate to tell you what I paid. It was about $1,000 month. It would be a bit different today."
He first visited the country in 1961. "I did Sunday Night at the London Palladium with Adam Faith and Helen Shapiro. I debuted my song Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, played classical piano and sang. I had a lot of favourable comment and from that moment it was a love affair between the UK and myself. The fans in England have always been very faithful to the original rock and rollers."
It was during that 1970s stay that he wrote some of his best numbers. "I knew I had to make a change as there had been the advent of the singer/songwriter like Carole King, my old girlfriend, Cat Stephens and Gordon Lightfoot. Their songs were poetic and painted pictures and I wrote songs in that particular style."
Yet he is still proud of his early songs. "They were above the bubblegum music of the day and the lyrics and music sat well together. Some songs were easier to write than others, Oh! Carol took about 40 minutes and Calendar Girl took a few hours."
Asked to name some of his favourites he lists Laughter in the Rain, The Hungry Years, Solitaire, Love Will Keep Us Together, all written during those traumatic 1970s.
It was the period he played in Northern clubs including Liverpool's Wookey Hollow. "I remember that well, a small cabaret club. I recently saw a documentary on Liverpool about the Beatle tours and museums and I found it all quite fascinating."
Sedaka is still writing songs, his new album will feature 12 of them. "I am inspired by anything, something someone might say to me, a book, a movie, life in general inspires me. I do love life."
For his British tour, Sedaka will be travelling with just a piano, no band. "It's very ambitious, just two and a half hours of me and the piano. There will be videos of my youth and growing up and of other artists who have covered my compositions.
"It is a pure way of performing, the way I wrote the songs and very personal. People are always very interested in how I wrote the songs, why and what I was doing at the time."
Meanwhile, he is trying to teach his parrot Echo a new trick, he laughs. "If I can get him to sing Amarillo I will triple my fees."
* Neil Sedaka is at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, on April 10, 2006
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Sorry I took so long.
- Borderstone
Neil Sedaka will be playing here in Phoenix for New Years Eve. 
If interested,I'll post location later! 
